Safety of penstocks is fundamental to maintain hydropower plants in operation. In most European countries – and even in Italy – the aging of hydropower infrastructures and their components is a common problem. In addition to this aspect, the risk assessment of these infrastructures must be reconsidered taking into account the progressive increase of anthropization of the areas where these systems are located.

The support offered by advanced numerical modelling to analyze different damage scenarios and to find, if necessary, the most appropriate structural rehabilitation solutions is addressed in this paper.

Moreover, the numerical models can be used to define the installation of integrated monitoring systems for detecting the evolution of possible phenomena in progress and for monitoring the behavior of the structure.

To these more general aspects, in some cases criticalities induced in the infrastructures by geological-geotechnical phenomena, not foreseen in the planning and realization phase, have to be added. The application of advanced numerical modelling to a real case of a steel penstock located on a deep-seated gravitational slope deformation (DSGSD) is presented.